The City Library Association, Springfield, Massachusetts. 
LITERATURE: ART: SCIENCE. 


FROM THE ART LIBRARY 
IN THE ART BUILDING. 


S.MARK: VENICE: ITS MO- 
Peto: 11S: SCULPTURES: 
AND TFS TREASURES. 


The Work to be Exhibited. 


One of the notable illustrated works in the art depart- 
ment, in the museum building, of the city library, is the “San 
Marco” of Ferdinand Ongania, in fourteen folio volumes, with 
eleven hundred full page plates, most. of them in gold and 
color. Its accomplished author, says Henry Perl, devoted 
twenty years of his life and a considerable portion of his 
means to his project of exhibiting to the world, both by pen 
and pencil, the inestimable treasures which the Church of San 
Marco possesses. 


No. 27—5-98—500 


Several hundred of the most attractive of the plates from 
this work are to be shown on screens in the larger lecture 
room of the art building on a date to be announced. 


Ruskin Says of the Church of S. Mark. 


There rises a vision out of the earth; — a multitude of pil- 
lars and white domes, clustered into a long low pyramid of 
colored light; a treasure-heap, it seems, partly of gold, and 
partly of opal and mother-of-pearl, hollowed beneath into five 
great vaulted porches, ceiled with fair mosaic, and beset with 
sculpture of alabaster, clear as amber and delicate as ivory. 
* * * * And round the walls of the porches there are set 
pillars of variegated stones, Jasper and porphyry, and deep 
green serpentine spotted with flakes of snow, and marbles. 

* * And above them in the broad archivolts, a continuous 
chain of language and life — angels, and the signs of heaven, 
and the labors of men, each in its appointed season upon the 
earth; and above these another range of glittering pinnacles, 
mixed with white arches edged with scarlet flowers,—a con- 
fusion of delight. 


The Glory Within. 


Its great glory within, says Mr. Fergusson, is the truly 
Byzantine profusion of gold mosaics which cover every part of 
the walls above the height of the capitals of the columns, and 
are spread over every part of the vaults and domes, being, in 
fact, the real and essential decoration of the church, to which 
the architecture is entirely subordinate. Without, its great 
beauty consists in the number of marble columns which surround 
and fill all the front and lateral porches. Like those in the 
interior, they fill no constructive office, but are in themselves 
rich and beautiful, and dispersed in most admired disorder. 
Mr. Fergusson is of the opinion that the design was copied from 
the original Church of S. Mark at Alexandria, from whence 
the Evangelist’s body was translated to Venice. And it is 
probable that many of the columns now standing at Venice 
were at the same time brought from the church at Alexandria. 


Historical Note. 


The first church erected at Venice, in honor of S. Mark, 
was destroyed by fire in 976. Its rebuilding was immediately 
commenced, and the existing church was consecrated in 1085. 
Since that time nearly every Doge has added to the richness of 


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its decorations. The main body of the church ts of the eleventh 
century, the Gothic additions of the fourteenth, and the re- 
stored mosaics of the seventeenth. 


Some of the Books on Venice in the City Library. 


1. Venice, an historical sketch of the republic; by H. F. Brown. 
(1893) (A clear, readable history.) 2668.9. 


2. History of the Venetian republic, her rise, her greatness, and 
her civilization; by W.C. Hazlitt. 4 v. (1860) (Very full.) 
2567.4. 

3. Calli e canali in Venezia; edited by F. Ongania. (1891) 
(A collection of beautiful pictures of most attractive scenes in 
Venice.) Art Library. 


4. Literary landmarks of Venice; by L. Hutton. (1896) (Gives 
glimpses of the surroundings of many famous people who were 
born or have spent a part of their lives in Venice.) 2973.121. 


5. Guide to the paintings of Venice; an historical and critical 
account of all the pictures in Venice, * * * * and _ short 
lives of the Venetian masters; by K. Karoly. (1895) 1041.28. 


6- Stories of Venice and the Venetians; by J. B. Marsh. (1873) 
(Popular, entertaining sketches of Venetian history). 2974.25. 


7. Makers of Venice; by M. O. W. Oliphant. (1887) (Histori- 
cal and biographical.) 2340.27. | 


8. Venezia, * * * * with 210 full-page and text illustrations 
from original drawings. (1894) (Largely descriptive of buildings 
and of life in Venice, containing such chapters as, Buildings on 
the Grand Canal — Walks in Venice — Industrial Venice, eéc., 
*2970.118. 


g. Gondola days; by F. H. Smith. (1897) (A chatty sketch 
of Venetian life.) 2952.2. 


10. Venice of to-day; by F. H. Smith. (1895) (A delightful 
description of the Venice of the present.) *Case II. Shelf I. 
No. 23. 


11. Venice ; from Lord Byron’s Childe Harold, with 30 original 
drawings made in Venice by L. Sambourne. (1878) (Selec- 
tions from the poem descriptive of the illustrations.) *Case 
III, Shelf II, No. 70. 


12. Venice; by A. Wiel. (1894) (Story of the nations.) (A 
general historical account.) 2775.12. 


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13. Venice: its history — art —industries and modern life. 
(1880) (Especially full along the line of art, containing many 
copies of paintings by Venetian artists.) *Case III, No. 3. 


Books on Venice Having Special Reference to the 
Church of S, Mark. 


14. Queen of the Adriatic, or Venice past and present; by W. 
H. D. Adams. (1869) (On pp. 297-309 is a very good descrip- 
tion of St. Mark’s, particularly of the interior.) 2974.6. 

15. Queen of the Adriatic, or Venice, medizeval and modern; 
by C. E. Clement. (c. 1893) (Pp. 259-274 describe many inter- 
esting details about the building.) **2973.117. 

16. Venice; the city of the sea; by E. Flagg. (185 3) (An excel- 
lent account of the cathedral, especially of the mosaics, will be 
found on pp. 121-131 of vol. 1.) 2977.8. 

17. Venice; by A. J.C. Hare. (Pp. 14-35 describe the. cathe- 
dral.) 2974.28. 

18. Churches and pictures; by W. D. Howells. (z Acs Vene- 
tian life.) (Pp. 157-162 describe the effect the cathedral has 
upon a devout observer.) 2974.17. 

19. Handbook for travellers in Northern Italy, published by J. 
Murray. (Contains a clear and condensed account of ‘the 
cathedral on pp. 361-367.) 20985.118. 

2°. Veniceand St, Mark’s; by C.E. Norton: (Zz 4zs Historical 
studies of church building in the middle ages.) (On Pp. 39-83 
will be found an account of St. Mark’s, largely historical.) 
844.9. 

21. St. Mark’s rest; by J. Ruskin. (An interesting little volume 
of which chapter viii is given up to descriptions of the mosaics 
and ornaments of St. Mark’s.) 765.20. 

22. Stones of Venice; by J. Ruskin. (Pp. 60-1 Ig of vol. 2 
give a very full description of the architecture and ornamenta- 
tion of St. Mark's.) “It was at once a type of the Redeemed 
church of God, and a scroll for the written word of God. It 
was to be to them both an image of the Bride, all glorious 
within, . . . and the actual Table of the Law.” Ruskin, 775.6, 
23. Venice; an illustrated lecture by J. L. Stoddard. (On pp. 
316.328 is a very general description of the building.) **2981.116 
24. Venice: its history —art—Zindustries and modern life ; 
by C. Yriarte. (On pp. 129-141 is a description of the archi- 
tecture of the cathedral.) **2973.1202. 





